New Report: One of the scariest effects of climate change might already be happening April 25, 2018

New study says one of the scariest projections of climate change may already be underway

Chronicle Staff

(NATIONAL) – If you live in a coastal city like Miami this should give you the willies, just a bit.

Business Insider is out with a new report that says one of the scariest effects of climate change might already be happening and if it is, that means certain projections about when certain cities on the coasts may start to be swamped with high water are way off.

The report says the worst-case climate scenario for coastal cities is known as a "pulse."

And “in that situation, abnormally warm water could cause the glaciers that hold back ice sheets on top of Antarctica and Greenland to collapse. That in turn would cause massive quantities of ice to pour into the world's oceans, which could lead to extremely rapid sea-level rise around the world.

If such a scenario were to occur, “current sea-level rise predictions for vulnerable cities like Miami would be far too low. “’

And how disconcerting is that possibility?

At present the best science says Miami will likely be surrounded by seas up to 7 or 8 feet higher than they were in 1900 by the end of this century.

But in the case of a pulse, some experts think South Florida could see 10 to 30 feet of sea-level rise by 2100 and the computer models that predict that also say that high a rise could be accompanied by a double whammy – large “super storms.”

According to the report, the conditions that might mark the start of such a frightening scenario may already be underway in Antarctica, according to a recent study published in the journal Science Advances.

In light of the above, it’s interesting to note that the average temperature in this country has risen rapidly and drastically since 1980 and recent decades have been the warmest of the past 1,500 years, according to a federal climate change report that in August of last year was awaiting approval by the Trump administration.

The New York Times reported at that time that the new draft report done by scientists from 13 federal agencies - which had not been made public in August 2017 - concludes that Americans are feeling the effects of climate change right now and that position directly contradicts claims by President Trump and members of his cabinet who say that," The human contribution to climate change is uncertain, and that the ability to predict the effects is limited," according to the Times report.

Some items from that 2017 Times report:

.......“Evidence for a changing climate abounds, from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans,” a draft of the report states. A copy of it was obtained by The New York Times.

.......The authors note that thousands of studies, conducted by tens of thousands of scientists, have documented climate changes on land and in the air.

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